One Tree Hill

The faint fluting of a crimson rosella and a butcherbird he pipes then all is still And a gray fog in the chill of early morning surrounds the high gum trees of One Tree Hill The houses are dwarfed by the tall trees around them and why they call it One Tree Hill I wonder why? For there is not one block without a tree on and the name of the place the very facts belie. The currawongs are piping in the woodlands and dark rain clouds are gathering in the sky And in these high woodlands just east of Melbourne they do get heavy rainfalls in July This place it has inspired the poets and artists Tom Roberts Arthur Streeton, Fred Williams and Neil Douglas once lived nearby And renowned artists Margaret Kennedy, Neil MaCleod and Joy Serwylo still live locally their paintings for art lovers to enjoy. And the famed Aboriginal artist Lyn Onus lived in the Yarra Ranges he now lay with the well remembered dead And the immortal sculptor William Ricketts at Rest In Olinda so much about him been written and said On canvas they glorified the wooded hills east of Melbourne these cultural icons of the old Sherbrooke Shire The role models of many younger artists and the younger generation they inspire. A high and a wooded place of natural beauty though One Tree Hill with a name change could do From the high ground one cannot see the valley the towering gum trees from you block the view, The magpie's flute is ringing in the gray fog that surrounds the tall trees in early day And the red wattlebird utters a hoarse like cackle and from the hills Spring not that far away.